


You only drown once

by ClaraCivry (Kat_Of_Dresden)



Category: The Strokes
Genre: CPR, Gen, Hurt Boys, Hurt/Comfort, Whump, and the guys don't know why they're there, because there's no vid, but more angst, but there's too much water, injuries, or in that room at least, set after the you only live once video???, so many injuries, with that water
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-08 04:53:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19863799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Of_Dresden/pseuds/ClaraCivry
Summary: Set in the You only live once video's room.Julian wakes up in a strange room, covered in some dark water. He's hurt, nearly drowned. His band mates are even worse.Gratuitous Strokes whump!!!





	1. Chapter 1

He woke up floating face down - it was nothing short of a miracle that he hadn't drowned. There was something odd in the air, it made it difficult to breathe. Julian coughed up some.... Something liquid, something dark and liquid, and tried to look around. His eyes complained as he was surrounded by plain white walls, only darkened by the mysterious dark liquid soaking him.

Flashes of memory coursed through him. A foul smelling rag in his mouth. Thrashing against some very strong hands, behind held back, knowing he was going to be bruised all over. Losing… losing control of his body, being carried around, thrown around. He vaguely remembered the others being there too, flashes of Nikolai’s hair, Fab’s face, bruised and bloody…. And then nothing, nothing until he woke up.

  
He didn't understand anything, couldn’t. The last thing he remembered was having some beers with the guys after a concert and then…. When Julian woke up he was shoulder deep in some black liquid, in some weird metallic small room.... And whatever this liquid was, (it looked like petrol but tasted like pool water, tainted with...something chemical, hard to explain) they had been drenched in it. He was in a mysterious white room, it was in complete silence, and he’d almost drowned in something that wasn’t quite water.  
  
Julian wished he remembered why he was here, how did he get here, anything at all of what led him here. His head was fuzzy with chemicals, and it was being hard to fully wake up and get what was going on, what had happened. The only things he knew were that somebody had dressed him in some strange clothes, and that there was an odd after taste in his mouth and in his throat. All of him tasted bad, all of the…

His heart stopped as he looked back on the rest of the room and saw some figures on the water. Fuck, the others were there too, floating! Sinking! Fucking drowning! Julian strangled a cry of anguish, fuck, shit, the band! His best friends! Fuuuuck!!!  
  
Albert was already awake and looked at Julian, a question in his eyes. The singer just shook his head, trying not to hyperventilate, trying to be helpful, trying to think. Albert focused on his bandmate and his dark eyes, trying to find an anchor in this ocean of horror. If he had to be in hell, at least he didn't have to be alone. The level of the water was going down, but not fast enough.  
  
"what the hell is this???? Fuck!!!"  
  
After this sudden burst of profanities it was time to go back to reality. Albert looked around in terror and without much thought he retrieved the first figure he saw floating on the other side of the room, who happened to be Nikolai. His eyes were closed and there was a gash on his forehead, but he was alive, but his eyes were closed. Fuck. Very much fuck. Albert put his ear to his friend’s chest and noted with relief that he seemed to be breathing normally, which meant that he hadn’t drowned. Small mercies.

Still a bit shocked to find himself where he was (wherever that place was) and chilled to the bone, Albert focused on bringing Nikolai back to the land of the of the living. The bassist’s usually perfectly styled hair was plastered to his pale skin, wet with dark water. Somehow, Albert’s shaking and gentle touching awoke his his friend, who woke up with a start, as if from a nightmare, and whose eyes flew open.

Nikolai looked around, breathing heavily and leaned on Albert next to him. He closed his eyes, tried to think over his overwhelming headache. Someone had hit him with a pipe or something when he was at home, and then…. He was drenched and cold, and Albert was in front of him, also drenched and looking terrified. What had happened? What was this place? Albert’s voice cut through his panic.

“You all right?”

Nikolai shook his head through his fear and confusion, trying to take in the sight around him, this strange room… There was something ominous about how that liquid had seeped into all of them, each and every part of them. Oh and their instruments were floating around there, too.  
  
Julian was frozen for a bit, unable to move, to think. Maybe it had to with the drugs they’d given him to take him under, maybe he was simply in shock. He watched as Albert got Nikolai and then went back underwater to retrieve Fab… Fab who could be…. could be... Don’t even think about that, Julian! Do not even think. He left this pessimistic train of thought and tried to get himself together and look for Nick.

He should be easy to find, right? He was so tall, all long limbs, it should be easy to find him, a leg, his hair, something... Where the hell are you, Nick? He found the guitar, but there was no sight of the guitarist. The water level had gone down to their ankles now, they could practically see the floor, so why couldn’t he see Nick? He’d been there with them, Jules didn’t know how he knew, but he definitely knew….

On the other side of the room, Albert was frantically trying to perform CPR on the lifeless form of Fab, who had his face all bruised and who hadn’t been breathing when he was found. Nikolai was watching in mute alarm. His hands were ghosting over Fab’s still, mangled body, trying to do something to help but being unable to find anything.

“Help!” A panicked voice said on the other side of the room. “Please, I can’t!”

Julian finally found Nick. He’d been half hidden in a corner, his long limbs sprawled on the metal of the floor of the room, his face slack, lifeless, scarily still. Julian sat next to him, careful not to slip as the water went down and down….

“Nick, hey, Nick…..”

But Nick wasn’t responding to anything, not to Jules’ hands on the guitarist’s bony face, not to his calling his name…. Nick wasn’t breathing and the only indication they had that he was even alive was a faint an irregular pulse. Julian tried to do something but his had was swimming and felt faint and he couldn’t even… couldn’t even…. The world was dancing around him but he knew that he had to do something, Nick was getting farther and farther away… So he called for help, trying to do… something for him, for his friend who was barely alive….

Nikolai came into his field of vision and knelt next to him and Nick, and looked at Jules.

“He’s not breathing. He’s not…. Ni - ni---”

Nikolai could tell that Julian was not tracking properly, his eyes were glassy and unfocused,he could hardly keep balance but he knew that something was wrong, he knew that Nick was in serious trouble. And it was breaking him….

“I got you, Jules, all right? And we’ll get him back.”

Easier said than done.

Nikolai had learned some first aid back in his day, but the truth was he’d never (fortunately) had the need to put it into practice. He was mirroring a bit what Albert was doing, what he'd seen in films, what little he could remember of the classes… It was hard, his headache was worse and Nick’s life was hanging in the balance, they’d been friends forever, they met when they were kids, they’d always been close, and now Nick was dying, dying! And would be dead if they didn’t fix this….

On the other side of the room Albert had seen Fab open his eyes and cough up all of that water. The drummer still looked quite bad and was coughing like a madman, but he seemed to be aware of where he was, even if, like the rest, he had no idea what had happened. He was limping and his chest hurt quite badly from the amateur resuscitation, but he was there, conscious and aware, and for a bit it was enough.

But then they caught sight of the tragedy that was happening on the other side of the room. Nikolai’s arm where shaking as he tried to bring Nick back to life. He breathed on his mouth, he compressed the chest as the other four looked, in the most terrible tension, feeling that every second was stretching out until infinity….

Fab was hanging on to Albert, trying to get lost on the wet man’s figure, forget this was even happening, close his eyes until everything was fixed. Albert was considering offering to help poor Nikolai, taking over, but couldn’t find the words. Julian…. the world had been blurry and wrong since he woke up, but now it was even worse….

One of the metal walls opened and revealed a dark hallway, but the guys didn’t even care. They couldn’t, not when they were about to lose one of their own, not when they were in the middle of a life or death situation, all broken up in different places.

Nikolai’s hands were shaking even as he kept doing compressions on Nick’s chest, afraid but determined. He wanted, needed to see those big blue eyes open, he needed to save Nick to be able to weather whatever was coming….

“Maybe… Maybe you should stop” Somebody’s voice said behind him, but he couldn’t hear.

He kept at it, kept at it, kept at it….

It was faint, weak, but some dark water was sputtered out of Nick’s mouth. And then some more, and then some more, slowly, with racking coughs, but he was there, he’d come back, and this meant that all five of them had survived whatever the hell had happened. Sure, they were not it a great state.

Albert was the closest to unharmed, even if he had what felt like a broken wrist and his other arm wasn’t working all that fine either. Fab’s face and chest were a mess that was going to bruise in every colour under the rainbow, and one of his ankles was complaining too. Nikolai’s headache was worsening, but he thought he could pull through. Julian… he closed his eyes and tried to get back into the world, but he was awfully light headed and just forming words or looking at his friends was a whole ordeal. He didn’t know how much he would last awake and working.

But they had to get out. They needed medical attention, they needed something warm, and they needed to get out of that room of horrors where they’d nearly died. There was no water anymore, only the one in their clothes and hair and lungs. And the door was opened and although it was suspicious, they needed to check it out, they needed to walk and get away from that chamber of torture…. Which was going to be no easy feat.

“I can’t…I can’t walk very well.” Fab said, his voice scratchy and raw from too much coughing up that horrible water.

“You can lean on me.” Albert said, offering his most uninjured arm and shoulder. Offering himself in general. Fab gratefully accepted.

“I think I can walk.” Julian said. He was still quite dizzy, but if he walked slowly and near the walls…..

Nick… Nick could hear the faint voices of his bandmates, but couldn’t distinguish them. His chest hurt, he wanted to puke and sleep for a million years, and he didn’t even have the strength to form words, to tell the others something, reassure them, or ask what on Earth had happened. His head was fuzzy, his chest hurt, his stomach was turning and he felt short of breath. All in all, Nick felt absolutely horrible - keeping his eyes open was complicated, talking seemed an almost unachievable chore and walking was definitely impossible.

“I’m going to pick him up.” Nikolai said to the others.

“Are you sure you can?” Fab asked with a concerned expression, as the bassist picked up the only half-conscious guitarist, instructing him to hold on to his neck.

“I’m the only one who can take his weight, I think.” Nikolai said. “And we can’t leave him here.”

Not exactly reassuring, but enough. Nikolai took Nick bridal style, his head lolling from side to side until he rested it on his friend’s chest, his long legs dangling. Their way out was going to be slow and tortuous but they needed to get out, needed an ambulance or several, needed something warm….

But after getting out, they were only greeted by a cold voice and a dark hallway.

“Congratulations on surviving the first challenge, The Strokes. Survive two more and you will gain your freedom. Fail any of the coming ones and you will find death.”

“Who are you?” Julian asked, looking at the metal ceiling. “Why are you doing this?”

But there was no answer.

Just the sounds of ragged breathing and screams at the realisation that they were not getting out of there any time soon.


	2. Chapter 2

Nick was trying to make sense of the world, but it was difficult. The last…. days were quite a blur. He remembered somebody grabbing him and pinning him while he was on bed, someone big who smelled of chemicals. There was a rag in his face, a rag that smelled terribly bad and got to all of his senses, and then there was only darkness.

He woke up for some split seconds, under the water. It was dark and his limbs were not answering properly, and he was swallowing too much water, there was only water and he couldn’t breathe! Water in his throat, in his nose, everywhere… He wanted to breathe, so very bad, but there was only water… It was too dark as well, and he didn’t know which way was up, didn’t know where to swim, he tried to… Tried to get up, but it was impossible, and so he stopped, stopped moving, stopped trying, closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again all of him hurt, it hurt badly, and scared eyes greeted him. Familiar set of eyes who seemed full of relief and joy, even as there was blood and injuries around them. With some trouble, he managed to recognise Nikolai in front of him, with a head injury and eyes full of relief. He wanted to talk, say something, but it was hard…

He didn’t know what had happened to him. He knew that the others were around, but… He was extremely disoriented - didn’t know what place this, what time, he barely remembered who he was. He couldn’t talk, couldn’t walk, only wheeze and struggle to keep his eyes open.

And then somebody picked him up from the floor and they were cold and wet too, but Nick didn’t care. He just wanted to be able to breathe properly, he just wanted this horrible pain to go away, he wanted to be able to focus, to understand what was going on. He only wanted to breathe, but even that was apparently too much to ask. He closed his eyes and put his head on his saviour’s chest, trying to forget the world and focusing on breathing, an almost impossible chore. 

Nikolai watched in concern how Nick closed his eyes, how his wheezing had become so much worse than before. He probably had some serious after effect of the drowning, and they weren’t going to get help any time soon. This was serious, and it was going to be hard to pass any more challenges when they in such an state.

Nick was half dead on Nikolai’s arms, and the bassist, while putting on a brave face fr the others felt that his head was going to explode. Fab felt in constant pain: he was quite sure that he had at least a couple of broken ribs, that made it painful to even breathe, his face was throbbing and his legs didn’t want to support his weight any more.

“All right, guys.” Jules said, slurring his words much more than usual. “We do… what the voice says, but always looking for…. looking for…”

Julian stopped, leaned against a wall and threw up and mix of dark water and semi processed food, making everybody grimace, jeez, how disgusting. The good news was that he was feeling a bit better after that. The bad news was that he made everyone else nauseous.

The hallway was dark and metallic and they were moving very slowly through it. Fab’s ankle hurt more, Julian couldn’t walk very fast or he got dizzy, and Nikolai was going slowly too, partly because he couldn’t move all that fast, and partly because he didn’t want to jostle Nick so much, when he seemed to be so ill. So it was slow and tortuous, but eventually they managed to get to another room.

It was even colder than the first, which wasn’t good for them, all drenched - they could have to add a cold to the neverending list of injuries, it would seem. Nikolai left Nick on the floor, careful with the guitarist, and fought against the overwhelming headache. The room where they were now was metallic like the first one, but a big bigger, and there was no water. Instead, there were five tiny booth, one a bit wider than the others, and inside of each there was an instrument.

Oh.

“You probably guessed it already, The Strokes, but the next challenge is simply playing one of your songs. But - it will need to be performed flawlessly. If one of you fails a note, there will be a warning. If this happes a second time the warning will be more severe. The third time…. The third time will mean death, for the offender and everyone else.” The robotic voice announced, apparently without any feelings at all.

Albert looked around and knew that they couldn’t do this. Nick was barely with them, Fab was hurt everywhere, Julian couldn’t even stand for too long….

“You have to give us time. Or… let me do Nick’s parts. And someone can-”

“NO!” The robotic voice bellowed. “Each member of the band will have to do their part, or all of you will suffer the consequences. Know, injured Strokes, that if you can’t perform you will be the cause of your friends’ demise.”

This was not fair.

Fab hadn’t chosen to have his ankle hurt, Nick hadn’t chosen to nearly die from drowning, it wasn’t Julian’s fault that the entire world seemed to be on a fucking carousel around him. But now the lives of the other guys were in their hands, and they were supposed to deliver a perfect performance despite being in terrible pain, despite being broken in several places.

The Strokes shared a look of fear, of horror. None of them wanted to die and much less be the cause of the something bad happening to the others… But making such little mistakes was hard even in regular circumstances and with the added pressure of knowing that a mistake from you could mean the death of all your band mates…

“We’ll do it.” A familiar voice that they hadn’t heard in a while said. “We will manage.”

It was Nick from his spot on the floor. Albert and Nikolai helped him up and he drew a small smile at their concerned faces. It was good to know that you still had people that cared about you - something good to hold on to.

“You’re sure you’re up to this?”

“What… what choice do we have? We… have performed drunk too, haven’t we? We can do this. I will… will do this… For you. For us.”

Julian smiled. They would get strength where there was none and play, even if it was the last thing they did. They were a band, and they were there for each other. For better or worse.

“Hug for luck?”

It wasn’t the most comfortable hug, with all those broken bones and bruises, but they all knew that this could be a goodbye, their last chance to look at each other, to feel somebody’s warmth. And it was a reminder of why they have to be perfect. All this talent, all this incredible human beings couldn’t be lost.

And so they ventured into the booths.

It was a very hard journey, every second felt like death. The song they had to perform was You only live once, which was good because it didn’t have terribly strenuous guitar solos, but it wasn’t as easy as others may have been, like Is this it. And every chord, every note was hell, because there was so much at stake…

Fab messed up a beat and there was an electric discharge. Still, they powered through. Nick could barely see, was just playing out of instinct, out of muscle memory. Julian was doing the same thing with his singing - thinking too hard would mean dooming the whole band. He’d sang this song a million times later, he could do it again. He would do it again.

Albert could feel his hands shaking as he played. There was so much tension, so much responsibility… And they couldn’t go down because of him, not when he was the least injured, but… Fab was having the hardest time because drumming involved a lot of muscles, a lot of effort, and so many arts of him hurt and it was hard… Very hard. But they were managing.

Nikolai screwed it up when they in the final part of the song and cursed himself terribly while trying to continue. They had no more tries now, and some people messed up in the end when they thought they were free… But, fortunately, this was not the case.

They finished the song and the booths opened again. There was a faint cry of triumph, some tears of joy. They’ve done it, they’ve done it despite their broekn down state, they’ve done the sweet music they were used to and had cheated death yet another time.

“Well done, The Strokes. You’ve made it much further than many of the other music bands that have taken the challenges. You have shown fortitude and great musical capacities.”

“LET US OUT” WE’VE PLAYED YOUR FUCKING GAMES, JUST LET US OUT!”

“There’s still a final challenge Mr. Casablancas. For not all of you can make it out - the next challenge is a very simple one: you have to choose which two members of the band will know freedom again, and which three will stay as my playthings forever. You have fifteen minutes.”

Somehow, this was much than the previous horrors combined.

**Author's Note:**

> I know there aren't hardly any fics for these guys... Possibly not a single whumper.... But I had to. 
> 
> That video needed some whump fic written about. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> Comments would be a gift from the heavenssss


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